The second full week in August brought our 5th visit to the Monterey Motorsports Reunion in the last 6 years.  Once again we were blessed with fabulous weather, great cars, and lots of activities.  A good bit of our visit was filled with our favorites – the Tour d’Elegance Ocean Avenue parade and Baja Cantina on Thursday and the races at Laguna Seca on Saturday and Sunday.  Friday we checked out the Legends of the Autobahn for the first time, test drove a Bentley Speed Coupe, and on Saturday night we visited the Russo and Steele auction.

Monterey Motorsports Reunion – Thursday

The parade down Carmel’s Ocean Avenue that marks the end of the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance has been a favorite of ours for a long time – you get to see most of the great cars that will take place in the Concours d’Elegance as they roll down Ocean Avenue.  Both sides of street are blocked off, and once the cars are parked, spectators can walk among them for several hours.  This event may actually be getting too popular – parking is tough, crowds are really tight, and I wonder how long until some $1M+ vehicle sustains some unfortunate damage.  Some shots from Ocean Avenue – I really liked the Lamborghini Miura & the BMW 507:

After Carmel, it was on to Baja Cantina, which has always been one of my favorites as just a relaxing evening to walk around the parking area with a margarita and a cigar, mix with fellow enthusiasts, and at some point head into the restaurant for some of the best carnitas around.

I’d have to say that we were more than just a little disappointed this year. First of all, since a crackdown by the ABC, you can’t take alcohol off the patio, so no more walkabout margarita – strike one.  Next, although we got there quite early, with the wait at 2+ hours the hostess was no longer taking additions to the waiting list for tables, and it seemed there was some new system in place that was not as friendly as in the past, so no carnitas today – strike two.  Lastly, with a new pay parking scheme in place, the parking lot scene lacked some of the cool sportscar + hot rod + oddity character of the past – strike three, and we were out and on to something else.  Sadly, it seems that perhaps we need to reevaluate our Thursday night program.

Monterey Motorsports Reunion – Friday

The past couple of years, we’ve spent Fridays at The Quail. This year we opted to try something different. We began the day with what ended up being one of the highlights of our trip – a Bentley test drive along 17 Mile Drive.  Bentley was set up in a beautiful house adjacent to Casa Palmero at Pebble Beach – what a great setting.  We arrived, signed in, and then piled along with our friendly Bentley representative into a gorgeous, Sequin Blue, Continental GT Speed.  I’ll say the folks at Crewe do a fabulous job with fit, finish, and detail, and after a fairly spirited drive along 17 Mile Drive, I’d say they’ve managed to create a package that makes the 6000+ LB (!) car accelerate, brake, and handle like a much smaller, lighter car. I was particularly impressed by the 616 HP, turbocharged W12 engine and the 8 speed, paddle shift transmission.  This was no out-and-back in 10 minutes drive – we had plenty of time to enjoy our ride.  After the drive, we were welcomed into the back side of the house for some delicious breakfast food and a place to take in the beauty of Pebble Beach.

After the cool Bentley experience, we walked along the other marques set up in Pebble Beach including Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac, Jaguar, and Porsche.  As you’d expect, Mercedes-Benz had a first class setup at Pebble Beach:

Here we saw this cool concept SUV that is about to go into production.  Looked like a winner to all of us:

Up the hill at Jaguar, we got our first real up close look at the F Type:

At the top of the hill, we stopped in at the Gooding & Company auction site where we saw this 1966 AAR Gurney-Weslake Eagle Mk 1:

After a great lunch at the Pebble Beach Lodge, it was off to the Legends of the Autobahn event at Rancho Canada in Carmel Valley. For a relaxing afternoon filled with outstanding German cars, beer, and food, it would be tough to beat this event. It’s much lower key than either The Quail or Concorso Italiano. And somehow, the folks at this event managed to set up a cool temporary beer garden.  Naturally there were lots of great cars from a wide range of vintages, but I’d have to say I was most drawn to the BMWs, especially the 3.0 cars from the early 70s:

Monterey Motorsports Reunion – Saturday & Sunday

Typically we spend Saturday and Sunday at Laguna Seca walking the paddock, running into some usual suspects, and watching a few races. This year we decided to check out the Concours d’Lemons along the way for a bit of comic relief if nothing else. This was actually a fun way to spend the morning walking around with a good cup of coffee.

Then, off to Laguna Seca for the main event. This year’s featured marque was the Corvette, so there were plenty of great examples on and off the track:

At the main display, they had racing and road Corvettes from each era arranged side by side as well as the new C7 Stingray:

Some other sights from the paddock area:

Derek Bell at the Bentley Continental GT3:

A wonderful Ferrari:

And a Martini Porsche that we would also see on the track:

Of course there was lots to see on track including Adam Carolla in one of his racing Nissans/Datsuns:

Awesome US muscle:

I think my favorite car on track was the 1998 Le Mans Winning Porsche 911 GT1-98:

Another fabulous Monterey Motorsports Reunion Week!  Many more pics posted at my Monterey Motorsports Reunion 2013 gallery.

Now it’s off to Belgium for next week’s Grand Prix – what an August!